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The PCB industry has been going through a period of transition over the past couple of decades, mainly driven by the relentless pace of technological advancement and the increasing complexity of modern devices. PCBs themselves have also evolved in recent times, having become the key to an intricate neural network powering everything from consumer devices to critical infrastructure. This escalating complexity demands a holistic, integrated...

With growing demand and increasing volumes of PCB’s necessary to power the huge number of devices in development today, it falls on PCB designers to be both effective and efficient—their efforts are critical determinants of success. However, if companies have not yet invested in modern technology and teams find themselves dealing with legacy systems, it becomes an uphill battle.  The traditional approach to PCB design often has hurdles...

Today, many designers are not using simulation early enough or often enough in the design process. This opens the door for defect escapes that may not be uncovered until late in the design process when correction costs are highest. Whether you’re creating a new circuit design or trying to determine whether a substitute for an out-of-stock component will function properly in your existing design, simulation can be a vital, time and money saving...

Getting caught with unsourceable components in a bill of materials (BOM) is more common than you might think, especially if you delay the BOM review until the last moment. Even with all the real-time supply chain tools provided in EDA software, designers can still get to the stage where they need to place an order, only to find parts are suddenly out of stock. A related issue is obsolescence, where parts included in a hardware BOM suddenly go...

Let's be honest, one of the biggest marketing buzzwords in electronics procurement is BOM management. Depending on who you're talking to, it means a lot of things and nothing simultaneously. How does one term become so ubiquitous and yet produce so little actionable advice? I think the reason this happens is that managers don't implement actual processes for BOM management, and design teams don't realize they can leverage their tools to...

In an attempt to level the playing field for American businesses and workers, the Biden administration has slapped new tariffs on an array of Chinese imports, imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Following a four-year review of Section 301 trade actions, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Federal Register Notice (FRN) detailing the conclusion of the statutory four-year review. Additional US tariffs have been...

If you read high-speed PCB design guidelines from semiconductor manufacturers and non-experts, they always talk about the use of rise time to analyze signal integrity. Signal rise time is important, as it determines things like EMI, crosstalk, and delay tuning tolerances. If your design is operating at gigabit-per-second data rates and faster, your rise time typically ends with delay tuning, and all other signal integrity factors are analyzed in...

Many products are manufactured on four-layer PCBs, and these are something of an entry-level stackup for many designs. From a signal integrity and EMI/EMC standpoint, the easiest four-layer stack to use is the Sig/GND/GND/Sig stackup, as it enables high-speed digital routing with controlled impedances on both sides of the board, but without a requirement for coplanar ground on the surface layers. Although this is the best stackup from a signal...

In high-speed printed circuit board (PCB) design, ensuring signal integrity is crucial to achieve reliable and efficient performance. Signal integrity refers to the preservation of the quality of electrical signals as they travel through the PCB, free from distortion and noise. Several factors influence signal integrity, including via design, ground plane strategies, and design for manufacturability (DFM). This article explores these critical...